Kyle Dubas could replace Pierre Dorion in Ottawa

On Tuesday, the Leafs take on the Lightning in the first game of a series with multiple implications for Toronto. After six consecutive first-round losses, the Leafs must win or face a major cleanup.

Sheldon Keefe, Kyle Dubas and Brendan Shanahan; everyone is at risk.

Knowing that his job is on the line, Dubas has been extremely aggressive on the trade market. He sacrificed two first-round picks and other top picks, as well as Rasmus Sandin, to get his hands on Ryan O’Reilly, Jake McCabe, Sam Lafferty, Erik Gustaffson and Luke Schenn.

Regardless of regular-season success, losing in the first round seven years in a row would simply be unacceptable, especially with the talent and resources available to the organization.

A win over the Lightning, however, does not guarantee a return for Dubas and Keefe. Indeed, in the most recent edition of Daily Faceoff Rundown, Framk Seravalli mentioned that there would be a power struggle between Shanahan and Dubas. The latter fight over who has the final say in big field hockey decisions. Most of the time, it’s the former player who has the upper hand.

What’s more, Dubas’ contract expires at the end of this season. With all these questions facing him, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him leave Toronto. A few days ago, his name was linked to the general manager position now vacant in Pittsburgh.

Seravalli adds, however, that another team to keep an eye on is the Ottawa Senators. According to Seravalli, there are more than nine out of 10 chances that Dorion is not “the right man for the job”, and Dubas could be an option to replace him.

Despite the fact that he’s still on the job, there’s no guarantee he’ll still be there next year. The new owners will probably want to hire the person of their choice, and the Franco-Ontarian has done nothing to prove he can build a winning team.

His skills as an evaluator of young talent are excellent. Except that the team hasn’t even come close to making the playoffs in two years, despite the fact that he publicly announced that the rebuild was over and that he got his hands on Claude Giroux, Matt Murray and Alex DeBrincat last summer.

But is Dubas really Ottawa’s answer? Because of his success at a young age and his use of advanced statistics, there has always been a certain fascination surrounding him.

Even in Sault-Sainte-Marie, where he became general manager at the age of 26, his team never made it past the second round of the playoffs. In Toronto, many of the team’s big pieces were already in place when he replaced Lou Lamoriello.

However, it was he who gave John Tavares a monstrous contract, handcuffing the team financially. What’s more, he’s never been able to find a top-notch goaltender and the depth to excel in the playoffs.

In short, if all this really comes to fruition, don’t get too excited.

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